President Biden issued an executive order on January 21 giving direction to the secretaries of education and health and human services to work together to develop guidance on returning the majority of students of all ages to schools as soon as possible. The success of reopening, however, is contingent on "safely conducting in-person learning, including by implementing mitigation measures such as cleaning, masking, proper ventilation, and testing."
The GBAC Star Accreditation focuses and is designed to help schools meet these considerations and concentrates on establishing and maintaining a comprehensive system of cleaning, disinfection, and infectious disease prevention. As schools look to promote and demonstrate behaviors that reduce the COVID-19 spread, hear how one California school recently completed the GBAC Star accreditation about how it gave students, parents, faculty, staff, and administration the reassurance that the facility was upholding the highest standards of cleaning and disinfection established by ISSA and that Sonoma Country Day School was a clean, safe, and healthy environment in which to work and learn.
February 24, 2021, 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM (EST)
Katie Cook
GBAC
Program Manager
Katie Cook, GBAC Program Manager, holds a bachelor's degree in public health from the University of Georgia College of Public Health and is currently completing her Master of Business Administration from Louisiana State University. Cook is passionate about helping individuals and facilities develop protocols to maintain healthy environments for employees and the public.
Sean McFarland
Sonoma Country Day School
Operations Manager
Operations Manager Sean McFarland joined the staff at Sonoma Country Day School in 2014. He oversees the day-to-day operations and long-range planning on the 18-acre campus which comprises 2 buildings totaling over 80,000 square feet. McFarland spent much of the summer of 2020 strategically planning for the return of grades TK-6 back to campus for in-person learning. Working in partnership with their contracted custodial company, Select Building Services, they secured the GBAC Star Facility Accreditation in December of 2020. This accreditation gave students, parents, faculty, staff and administration the reassurance that the facility was upholding the highest standards of cleaning and disinfection established by ISSA and that Sonoma Country Day School was a clean, safe and healthy environment in which to work and learn.
Kristin Foster
ISSA/GBAC
Kristin Foster is the inside sales support contact for GBAC's reseller/partnership program. She supports GBAC's association partners with all aspects of the GBAC Star Facility accreditation and the GBAC On-Line Fundamentals Course. She has over 20 years of experience in customer service, marketing, sales, and administration and has been with ISSA/GBAC for six months.